Guest view: Harvey teaches lessons so many already know

This editorial was first published in the (Middletown) Times Herald-Record, a fellow GateHouse Media publication. Guest editorials don't necessarily reflect the Daily Messenger's opinions.

Even as the rains fall and the rescues continue, the natural disaster that continues to grow in Texas and nearby is moving quickly into the political realm, as it must.

The immediate political concern is the appropriate role of governments at all levels once a hurricane or other force of nature strikes. The second and perhaps more important concern is what these governments should do to prevent or minimize damage and loss of life in the inevitable natural disasters to come.

Texas officials at all levels are asking the federal government for a substantial amount of aid, which is appropriate. This is one of the reasons we have governments, to step in during times of crisis. While there is universal support for this aid, some in the Northeast are determined to make a point that might at first sound cruel but that is necessary if others are going to learn an important lesson.

Rep. Peter King, the Long Island Republican, was the first among many to go out of his way to say that of course he will support a substantial aid package even though some of these same Texas politicians refused to offer the same courtesy and aid when Sandy and other storms struck.

Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who is so often wrong but never in doubt, still insists that the Sandy aid effort was packed with unrelated pork barrel spending. That myth has been investigated thoroughly and debunked. The latest Cruz attempt earned him three “Pinocchios” from The Washington Post, a ranking just above the worst.

If Cruz and his colleagues can be so wrong on this, which is a relatively straightforward issue with lots of information available, it raises substantial concerns about their ability or willingness to learn the lessons or join honest efforts that might keep other disasters from being so widespread.

Collaboration between the investigative journalism organization ProPublica and the Texas Tribune has shown over the past year how vulnerable Houston is to flooding. As Harvey subjects the Houston metropolitan area to “massive flooding from its third crippling storm in the past three years,” the two reported this week, “It underscores a new reality for the nation’s fourth-largest city: Climate change is making such storms more routine. Meanwhile, unchecked development in the Houston area is wiping out the pasture land that once soaked up floodwaters.”

If you believe in limited government, as Cruz and his cronies do, and if you do not believe in the science of climate change, as Cruz and his cronies do not, then you have a prescription for not only the devastation we are witnessing today but more substantial and widespread damage in the years to come.

Cruz and other Texans might want to pause and listen to one of their own, Sam Brody, a Texas A&M University at Galveston researcher quoted in the report last year on previous storms long before Harvey came roaring in from the Gulf:

“More people die here than anywhere else from floods. More property per capita is lost here. And the problem’s getting worse.”